Adv. Rachel Ben Ari (Bar Rav Hai) is the managing partner of Ben Ari Fish, Law Firm.

Adv. Ben Ari is the third generation of a family of lawyers and public activists. She joined her father in the firm which was founded by her grandfather in 1933.

In 1997 Adv. Ben Ari partnered with the late Adv. Adam Fish, and together the two founded Ben Ari Fish, Law Firm.

Adv. Ben Ari specializes in a wide range of legal areas, particularly administrative law, higher education law, inheritance and estate law and real estate and urban renewal.

Adv. Ben Ari serves as legal counsel to the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and to many educational and higher education institutions in Israel, as well as the legal counsel to VERA – Association of University Heads, Israel.

Among the notable precedents set in cases Adv. Ben Ari has conducted and led are the expansion of the obligation to hold a hearing prior to the termination of employment (Guterman v. Max Stern Yezreel Valley Academic College); the protection of the confidentiality of academic promotion procedures (Tzemach Keisar  v. Bar Ilan University and others); the limitation of judicial intervention in the academic considerations of hybrid organizations (Datz v. The Technion); the denial of retroactive application of rules for recognition of a doctoral degree awarded by a foreign institution (Yael Lavi v. The Division for Evaluation of Foreign Academic Degrees); and the definition of the scope of the moral right in an architectural work (Tao v. The Technion).

Adv. Ben Ari’s experience and personality allow her to conduct negotiations that lead to the resolution of complex issues and the settlement of protracted conflicts by agreement.

Public action

Alongside her professional activities, Adv. Ben Ari has promoted broad and diverse public activity for many years, and in doing so also continues the family tradition and heritage of her parents, her grandmother and grandfather.

Between 2003 and 2011, Adv. Ben Ari served as the Chairperson of the Israel Bar Association, Haifa District Committee (the first woman to hold this position). She also served as a member of the National Council of the Israel Bar Association in the years 1999-2015.

In December 2008, Adv. Ben Ari was elected by the National Council of the Israel Bar Association to serve as a member of the Parliamentarian Committee for the Selection of Judges. In 2011, Adv. Ben Ari was elected for another term as the representative of the Israel Bar Association on the Committee, and this in the midst of widespread public uproar regarding the composition of this Committee, and alongside political pressure in an attempt of Members of Knesset to influence and determine the identity of Israel Bar Association representatives on the committee.

Adv. Ben Ari also served as member of the board of directors of numerous and diverse companies and organizations, including the Channel 2 news company, Haifa Theater, the Consumer Protection Authority, Ethos (The Haifa Municipality Art, Culture and Sports Association Company), Bonus BioGroup Ltd. and more.

Adv. Ben Ari is one of the founders of the Legal Aid Center named after the late Judge Haim Cohen, and previously headed the Haifa branch of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.